Hello all. I just spent and interesting morning at Mt Glorious (near Brisbane) chasing a few rainforest species for the year list. The highlight was was seeing a Male Paradise Riflebird in full display…something I’ve not witness before. The strange thing was, it was an immature bird. Now, I know it takes a few years for them to reach the fully black plumage, but I had just assumed they would wait until they were all grown up before they started that type of caper. He seemed to know what he was doing, and did manage to attract a couple of females to the show. Trouble is they were the wrong species! (one each of Regent and Satin Bowerbirds). I guess practise makes perfect. I’ve place a trip report with pictures at http://aussiebirding.wildiaries.com/trips/10890 Cheers Steve Murray
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Steve, I have limited experience of this species but Victorias Riflebird young males will gather to practise.
They will even take turns at playing the female role in the display. Occasionally an adult male will burst in on the scene and show them how it is done. As some of the display involves the twitching which changes the viewed colour of the refracted light on adults from green to blue (or v.v.) I suppose that there is something in the colour of the feathers which we cannot perceive.
I have seen an immature Golden Bowerbird do the sort of display you have captured at a bower but never an adult and I’ve watched them a great deal. There are also photos existing of this but not taken by me. Was this a little cross species education? Regards, Alan
Hello Steve, Last year myself and two researchers from Cornell University watched 3 immature birds display to each other on the same perch up at Mt Glorious and they got some great videos. An adult male would come by occassinally and they would all start displaying to it. I believe the vids are up on their website.
Cheers,
Roger
Roger McNeill Samford Valley, SEQ
________________________________ Sent: Tuesday, 10 January 2012 4:34 PM
Hello all. I just spent and interesting morning at Mt Glorious (near Brisbane) chasing a few rainforest species for the year list. The highlight was was seeing a Male Paradise Riflebird in full display…something I’ve not witness before. The strange thing was, it was an immature bird. Now, I know it takes a few years for them to reach the fully black plumage, but I had just assumed they would wait until they were all grown up before they started that type of caper. He seemed to know what he was doing, and did manage to attract a couple of females to the show. Trouble is they were the wrong species! (one each of Regent and Satin Bowerbirds). I guess practise makes perfect. I’ve place a trip report with pictures at http://aussiebirding.wildiaries.com/trips/10890 Cheers Steve Murray
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http://birding-aus.org ===============================